Tessie
(Parte Dos)
(Parte Dos)
For all of you who want to know why we named Tessie Tessie its really quite simple. Its the only name she would respond to. Seriously. Well okay not quite really. When the BRLA found her they had no idea what her name was so they decided on Georgia. I really liked that name but it just wasn't her, almost though, almost her. It was a hard decision. The fact that the first afternoon she never once acknowledge me when we called her Georgia made it a little easier of a decision.
So Tessie is a name steeped in tradition and mired in legend. Its a name with deep historical significance. Songs have been written about the name and empires crumbled at the its very mention. No exaggeration, honest. So lets start at the beginning. Well maybe not the very beginning as that would involved a fat lady singing to a parakeet on Beacon Hill sometime after the Tea Party. For simplicity sake we can fast forward through that. So come the turn of the century the Boston baseballers were the hottest ticket in town (and still are some say). In 1903 Boston was in the World Series facing the Pittsburgh Pirates. Back then it was a best of 9 series and of course in fine Boston fashion the boys from Beantown were down 3 games to 1. Pittsburgh needed just two more wins to be the champs.
Lets pause for a sec, back then there was a group of fans dubbed the Royal Routers. Part drunken rabble part glee club the Routers would sing various songs to boost their team's moral and distract the opponents. The Routers were a rowdy bunch indeed. Often if they disagreed with an umpires call they would flood the field and threaten the ump, the ump's mother, and possibly even the ump's pets with bodily harm and other rather distasteful endings. (Quick note to self; never one to turn down a good Irish drink or a good Irish brawl, Boston mayor John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, grandfather of President Johnny F. Kennedy, was a member of the Royal Rooters. That's right JFK grew up a Sawx fan.) But lets stick to the singing. A Broadway musical of questionable popularity was being played out by performers of questionable talent at that time. Tessie was the song that quickly became notorious from the show simply for its annoy habit of getting stuck in the audiences head and playing over and over and over and over and, well you get the point. Its maddeningly annoying right?
Okay so back to the 1903 World Series of Baseball, Sox down three games to one, enter the rabble rousing Royal Rooters. They sang the song Tessie over and over again. They hired a band to play Tessie in Pittsburgh to annoy the Pirates on their own field. They cheered and sang and cheered the Boston team all the way to a remarkable come-from-behind victoire and the World Series crown.
Fast forward to 1918. The Red Sox had won 5 World Series titles between 1903 and 1918. Tessie played a role in each of them. Then after the 1918 series win the Babe was traded for a song and the Rooters locked out of Fenway. There is something about a curse involved but lets not get into that. Needless to say, Tessie was slowly forgotten by all but the most faithful in Red Sox Nation. The Fenway faithful went year after year without a Series win to show for the faithfulness.
Que 2003/4 and a little known (at the time) Boston Irish punk band the Dropkick Murphys. The Dropkick Murphys rewrote the song Tessie and released it in June of 2004. Soon it was once again a fan favorite and rallying cry of Red Sox Nation. The band played the song live in Fenway versus the dang Yankees in July. From then on the Sawx tore things up cruising all the way to the ALCS to face the hated Yanks again. In the best of 7 series the Red Sox lost game one. Then they went and lost game two. Then they got handed their lunches in game 3. No other professional team had over come back from an 0-3 deficit. No one. Ever. With the refrain of Tessie and Sweet Caroline lingering over the crowd the Red Sox went on to come from down by 7 runs ti game four to win. Then they won game 5. And then game 6. And then wouldn't you know it they won game 7 and were to to the World Series for the first time since 1986 (damn Buckner). The rest is history. The Sawx swept the Cards of St. Louis in 4 games and won the first World Series in 86 years. The liner notes for The Warrior's Code describe the band's intentions,
2007 comes along and the Sawx again are facing elimination, this time down 3-1 to the Cleveland Indians. The Dropkick Murphys were invited to perform Tessie live in Fenway. Sure enough after the performance the Sox exploded and stole the ALCS crown from right under Cleveland's nose. Once again the Sawx were off to the Series. This time they swept the Colorado Rockies to win the Championship.
It was 86 years before Tessie was sung again in Fenway-- 86 years without a championship in Boston. The song is song twice in Fenway (once in 2004 & once in 2007) and voila two World Series rings in three years (once in 2004 & once in 2007). Coincidence? Tessie doesn't think so...
So Tessie is a name steeped in tradition and mired in legend. Its a name with deep historical significance. Songs have been written about the name and empires crumbled at the its very mention. No exaggeration, honest. So lets start at the beginning. Well maybe not the very beginning as that would involved a fat lady singing to a parakeet on Beacon Hill sometime after the Tea Party. For simplicity sake we can fast forward through that. So come the turn of the century the Boston baseballers were the hottest ticket in town (and still are some say). In 1903 Boston was in the World Series facing the Pittsburgh Pirates. Back then it was a best of 9 series and of course in fine Boston fashion the boys from Beantown were down 3 games to 1. Pittsburgh needed just two more wins to be the champs.
Lets pause for a sec, back then there was a group of fans dubbed the Royal Routers. Part drunken rabble part glee club the Routers would sing various songs to boost their team's moral and distract the opponents. The Routers were a rowdy bunch indeed. Often if they disagreed with an umpires call they would flood the field and threaten the ump, the ump's mother, and possibly even the ump's pets with bodily harm and other rather distasteful endings. (Quick note to self; never one to turn down a good Irish drink or a good Irish brawl, Boston mayor John "Honey Fitz" Fitzgerald, grandfather of President Johnny F. Kennedy, was a member of the Royal Rooters. That's right JFK grew up a Sawx fan.) But lets stick to the singing. A Broadway musical of questionable popularity was being played out by performers of questionable talent at that time. Tessie was the song that quickly became notorious from the show simply for its annoy habit of getting stuck in the audiences head and playing over and over and over and over and, well you get the point. Its maddeningly annoying right?
Okay so back to the 1903 World Series of Baseball, Sox down three games to one, enter the rabble rousing Royal Rooters. They sang the song Tessie over and over again. They hired a band to play Tessie in Pittsburgh to annoy the Pirates on their own field. They cheered and sang and cheered the Boston team all the way to a remarkable come-from-behind victoire and the World Series crown.
Fast forward to 1918. The Red Sox had won 5 World Series titles between 1903 and 1918. Tessie played a role in each of them. Then after the 1918 series win the Babe was traded for a song and the Rooters locked out of Fenway. There is something about a curse involved but lets not get into that. Needless to say, Tessie was slowly forgotten by all but the most faithful in Red Sox Nation. The Fenway faithful went year after year without a Series win to show for the faithfulness.
Que 2003/4 and a little known (at the time) Boston Irish punk band the Dropkick Murphys. The Dropkick Murphys rewrote the song Tessie and released it in June of 2004. Soon it was once again a fan favorite and rallying cry of Red Sox Nation. The band played the song live in Fenway versus the dang Yankees in July. From then on the Sawx tore things up cruising all the way to the ALCS to face the hated Yanks again. In the best of 7 series the Red Sox lost game one. Then they went and lost game two. Then they got handed their lunches in game 3. No other professional team had over come back from an 0-3 deficit. No one. Ever. With the refrain of Tessie and Sweet Caroline lingering over the crowd the Red Sox went on to come from down by 7 runs ti game four to win. Then they won game 5. And then game 6. And then wouldn't you know it they won game 7 and were to to the World Series for the first time since 1986 (damn Buckner). The rest is history. The Sawx swept the Cards of St. Louis in 4 games and won the first World Series in 86 years. The liner notes for The Warrior's Code describe the band's intentions,
"We recorded this song in June 2004 and after giving it to the Red Sox told anyone that would listen that this song would guarantee a World Series victory. Obviously no one listened to us or took us seriously. We were three outs away from elimination in game 4 at the hands of the Yankees and receiving death threats from friends, family, & strangers telling us to stay away from the Red Sox and any other Boston sports team and get out of town. Luckily for us things turned around for the Red Sox and the rest is history."
2007 comes along and the Sawx again are facing elimination, this time down 3-1 to the Cleveland Indians. The Dropkick Murphys were invited to perform Tessie live in Fenway. Sure enough after the performance the Sox exploded and stole the ALCS crown from right under Cleveland's nose. Once again the Sawx were off to the Series. This time they swept the Colorado Rockies to win the Championship.
It was 86 years before Tessie was sung again in Fenway-- 86 years without a championship in Boston. The song is song twice in Fenway (once in 2004 & once in 2007) and voila two World Series rings in three years (once in 2004 & once in 2007). Coincidence? Tessie doesn't think so...
No comments:
Post a Comment